A delicious side dish, these miso collard greens are cooked in a savory, subtly-sweet umami flavor from mellow white miso paste, simple seasonings, and some heat from red pepper flakes.
vegan • umami flavor • easy
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Jump to:
- 📝 quick recipe overview
- ❤️ what you'll love about this miso collard greens recipe
- 🛑 what we want to avoid
- 🥣 supplemental ingredient notes
- 🔪 equipment notes
- 🧑🏽🍳 instruction notes
- Recipe
- 🍽️ how to serve
- 🧊 storage
- ✅ acceptable substitutions and variations
- ♻️ sustainability profile
- waste
- ❓ frequently asked questions
- more vegan sides recipes
- 🕰️ the latest
Collard greens deserve a place on your dish more than just to represent money on New Year's Day (in the South, at least). This versatile green is a delicious side that is easy to make, vegan-friendly, and packed with flavor.
I'll fully admit that I developed this recipe after miscalculating the amount of vegetable broth I needed for a New Year's Day meal and felt our greens needed more flavor. We had miso paste on hand (I hope you do, too!) and I created our own "broth" that's now our favorite preparation. I'm really excited to share it with you!
📝 quick recipe overview
- Skill level: Easy
- Taste: Savory, light with a little heat
- Waste: Low
- Sustainability: Highly sustainable with seasonal produce, little waste, and multi-use ingredients
- Cleanup: Easy
- Ingredients: Common, easy to source
- Equipment: Common, easy to source
- Time: Moderate, requires about an hour
- Consistency: Tender
- Kid-friendly: Moderately so (dependent on kids’ tolerance for greens)
❤️ what you'll love about this miso collard greens recipe
delicious flavor. The miso greens really let the natural collard flavor shine, but infuses it with a savory, umami flavor that has a hint of sweetness from the white miso paste, depth of flavor from the garlic powder, onion, and apple cider vinegar, and a little extra kick from red pepper flakes. The seasonings work together to create a beautiful dish that doesn't overpower the greens.
easy to make. You don't need to cook these for hours. This recipe is ready in an hour and only calls for a few, simple ingredients.
perfect texture. The greens are bright and tender, and not completely wilted.
vegan. You won't miss meat in this dish, I can assure you! This has plenty of flavor and makes the ideal side dish for lots of tasty vegan main courses!
🛑 what we want to avoid
overcooked, stringy greens. It's easy to overcook greens and end up with a pile of mush. If the greens become stringy and wrap themselves around the tines of your fork, that's no good. That's why in this recipe, we limit the liquid, create condensation by cooking with the lid on the pot, and cracking the lid if we feel some of the liquid needs to cook off.
bland flavor or under seasoned. While this recipe has a light flavor to really let the greens shine, you want to make sure there is still depth of flavor. Salt enhances taste and simple seasonings, like garlic powder, really bring greens to life.
🥣 supplemental ingredient notes
- Collard greens: I recommend fresh greens that aren't pre-cut and sold in plastic packaging; however, that may be less available in your area, so buy what works for you!
- Yellow onion
- Water
- Olive oil
- White miso paste: Mellow umami flavor
- Apple cider vinegar
- Granulated garlic or garlic powder
- Salt: Kosher salt is preferred for best flavor
- Ground celery seed: This is optional if you don't have it in your pantry
- Red pepper flakes: Optional, for a little heat
🔪 equipment notes
- Large pot or Dutch oven: I'm using a Dutch oven here
- Spoon or spatula: I'm using a wooden spatula here
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Knife: for cutting larger greens into smaller pieces and dicing onion
- Cutting board: to cut greens and onion, if needed
🧑🏽🍳 instruction notes
chopping collard greens
If using fresh (not bagged) greens from your garden, local farmer’s market, or grocery store, you need to wash and dry the greens thoroughly. You really don’t want any dirt or sand grit escaping into the dish.
When clean, cut the leaves into the sizes of your choice. I roll the leaf into a cigar-shape and roughly cut horizontally into thick pieces. You can also cut thin slices, which is known as chiffonade-style. However, I like pieces to be a few inches tall by a few inches wide so they remain hearty through the cooking process.
Look for any parts of the leaf that feel very thin and slimy, or more wilted than the rest of the leaf. Those can be removed and added to your compost.
Above, you can see a strip of the collard green after it's been rolled into a cigar shape and chopped into strips. With wide sections of leaf with a thinner center stem, I like to cut into three pieces with the stem in the middle.
Lower on the leaf, the center stem gets thicker. I like to carefully cut that stem in half so both leaves get a little of it. If it's awkwardly-shaped, I will occasionally cut the stem diagonally.
This is just what I like to do. I find keeping the stems as "anchors" for the leaves makes it easier to eat (stab with your fork). You can cut however you like, but don't forget to repurpose any discarded stems, which we'll discuss in the sustainability section close to the end of this post.
cooking the collards
Sauté onion. You want them to start becoming translucent before adding your greens.
Dissolve miso paste in water. We want the paste to distribute evenly through the greens.
Add greens and water. The water will not cover the top of the greens. Instead, it adds moisture to the dish and we retain that moisture by covering the pot with a lid.
Add seasonings and cover to cook. Add the dissolved miso, and remaining seasonings except the red pepper flakes. Stir to make sure they get incorporated before covering to cook for a minimum of 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the red pepper flakes before serving. When the greens are tender, they’re ready to serve. Add the red pepper flakes and taste. You can absolutely make adjustments to the seasonings, if you’d like!
Recipe
Miso Collard Greens
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- If using fresh, full-leaf collard greens, wash and dry thoroughly before cutting into pieces and the bottom, woody stems are removed. I like to cut my greens into pieces a few inches tall by a few inches wide.
- Dice yellow onion, if this has not yet been completed.
- In the bottom of your pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil and sauté diced yellow onion over medium heat and until the onion starts to turn translucent.½ medium to large yellow onion, diced, ½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- In a separate bowl, dissolve miso paste in a small amount of water.2 teaspoons white miso paste, 1 teaspoon granulated garlic, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, pinch ground celery seed
- Add collard greens to pot with sautéed onion and pour water, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, salt, and a pinch of ground celery seed over the top of the greens. Stir to evenly distribute seasonings.1 lb collard greens, 2 cups water
- Cover and allow to simmer on low-medium heat for a minimum of 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Greens should be tender and not wilted.
- When ready to remove from heat, stir in red pepper flakes, if using. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. Serve warm.¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Nutrition
Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!🍽️ how to serve
Serve warm as a side dish with your favorite main course! Top with a little extra salt, or seeds for a little crunch, if desired.
If you love a more potent vinegar flavor, top with some pepper sauce for more kick.
🧊 storage
The miso collard greens are best served immediately, but if you have leftovers or need to make these ahead, you can store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days, or a freezer-safe container in the freezer for up to 6 months. Reheat in a saucepan with a small amount of water before eating.
✅ acceptable substitutions and variations
Greens. Typically, you can substitute collard greens with other hearty, leafy greens like kale, mustard greens, or turnip greens.
Seasonings:
- Fresh garlic instead of garlic powder. Sauté it with the onion.
- Different miso variations. While this recipe hasn't been tested with other types of miso, you can absolutely experiment with the miso variation you prefer.
- White distilled vinegar. I like the flavor from apple cider vinegar, but you can get lovely flavor from other vinegar types as well.
♻️ sustainability profile
sourcing
Grow your own, or choose organic and plastic-free packaging from the store. Depending upon your area, you may be able to grow your own collard greens, onions, and garlic (if you prefer to use fresh garlic in place of garlic powder). Otherwise, see the "waste" section below for tips on sourcing the ingredients with low-waste practices in mind.
Embrace seasonality when possible. Collard greens can be grown in warmer climates year-round, but actually benefit from cooler weather (it sweetens them). Their peak season is usually January through March, which is a great time to source them from your local growers, or try your hand at growing your own! The other ingredients are less sensitive to seasonality.
waste
Packaging. Eliminate waste by purchasing greens from your local store or farmer's market without using plastic bags. Reusable produce bags are a big help here.
In our area, miso paste comes in a plastic container, which we do recycle or repurpose. However, some companies sell miso in glass jars, like South River Miso Company (I have not yet tried their products).
Collard Green Stems. Instead of tossing the stems, either slice and sauté in your favorite seasonings for a separate side dish, pickle, or add to your home compost to send them back to the earth.
❓ frequently asked questions
What vegetables go well with miso?
Miso plays well with others, including hearty vegetables like potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, bean varieties, asparagus, and more. Many vegetables taste delicious with a subtle umami flavor, which means miso is a versatile option for a wide spectrum of delicious vegetables!
What is the secret to good collard greens?
Hint: It’s NOT meat. The secret to good collard greens is depth of flavor from proper seasonings and a texture that’s tender and not overcooked. You don’t need meat (a common preparation for collard greens) to infuse the greens with flavor; rather, you can incorporate seasonings that you’re likely adding to meat anyway, directly to the greens. Great flavor can come from vegetable broth, miso, garlic or garlic powder, vinegars, peppers, salt, onions, among others.
What’s the best cooking liquid for collard greens?
The best cooking liquid for collard greens is either a simple vegetable broth, or water mixed with the seasonings of your choosing, which essentially creates your own broth. Mix water with miso, garlic powder, apple cider vinegar, and more. The cooking liquid is important and easily customizable with the flavors of your choosing. The key is a little salt, a little kick, some tanginess from vinegar, and depth from aromatics like onion and garlic.
more vegan sides recipes
- Chive Focaccia
- Air Fryer Frozen Asparagus
- Chili Lime Roasted Chickpeas
- Plant-Based Cornbread
- Beer Bread Biscuits
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